Norbert Delman
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SOS
23.05.2014
Galery Salon Akademii
Intervention art, view on action, balaclava
SOS work is a continuation of my considerations on the problem of anonymity and contemporary information – in my opinion, they are the dominant elements of the contemporary world and the young generation. The classic game called “Ships” was transformed by me into spatial action. Forty masked guests ( twenty in each room) was placed on a board game made on the floor. In one of the groups, at the start, there was less about 3 people, because they have decided to leave the game. Action takes 40 min – the time that one team needed to eliminate the second one.
The title of this work SOS (Save our Ships) is based on the international rescue communication. It is an information/alarm. Sailors were using this as shortcut of “Save our souls” with can be interpreted as an identity with a ship (there is no ship without sailor, and now sailor without ship) also sailors determine their survival on help that ship can get. You can see the analogy with the game led by me. The work refers to the sense of danger represented by a simple game. The applicable principle was to reveal your identity, when somebody was shot by removing the mask and say your real name. Unveiling the face in this context is an indication of the presence. In this game I play the role of information – was walking between rooms repeating number of areas, which was shot or the names of people who dropped out of the game. This symbolic death, which it takes is a moment of identity.